Holland Christian edges Eagles in penalty kicks

Tuesday

Oct 18, 2016 at 10:44 PMOct 19, 2016 at 1:24 PM

Chris.Zadorozny@hollandsentinel.com616-546-4271

Sometimes in soccer, one team is just better than the other. Other times, teams are even in talent on the pitch and on the scoreboard. But in the playoffs, one team has to come out the winner. In those games, it usually comes down to one shot.

For Holland Christian, the game came down to junior defenseman Cody Bennett’s foot.

In the fifth round of penalty kick’s, Bennett nailed a shot to the left of Grand Rapids Christian keeper Jacob Elzinga and into the back of the net.

After the goal, he turned around with his fists in the air running toward his teammates who were rushing onto the field to celebrate with him. The goal gave the Maroons a 2-1 win over the Eagles in the Division 2 district quarterfinals at home on Monday.

“I’m usually pretty bad at PK’s, but it found its way in I guess,” Bennett said.

Holland Christian scored on all five penalty kick attempts, with goals coming from Owen Valk, Jon Los, Nate VanSlooten and Clark Cutler. The reason Bennett had a chance to win because of the play in net by junior keeper Nick VanderLaan.

After the Eagles scored on the first two shots, VanderLaan made a diving stop the left on a shot by Tommy Visser, who scored the first goal of the game for Grand Rapids Christian.

“I mulled it over for some time,” said Maroons coach David DeBoer on who would participate in the shootout. “As soon as tournament play started, we started working on PK’s and obviously we go 5-for-5, we feel good about it.”

Heading into PK’s, VanderLaan wasn’t nervous and his confidence went up with each shooter for the Eagles.

“Eventually, you could tell their looks, the kickers that came up, they got more nervous.” VanderLaan said. “They’d start showing body motion to where it was going. So when it came up, you could tell where he was going.”

The reason the Maroons got to a shootout was because of the second half push. After Visser’s first half goal for the Eagles, Holland Christian began pushing back in the second half. Senior Jon Los tied the game on a shot from the top of the box that caught the top right corner of the net for a 1-1 tie with 29:31 remaining in regulation.

“Watching film and studying how they do things, we knew that we had depth on them,” DeBoer said. “We subbed quite a bit and I think we continued to wear on them and that was just the conversation (we had).”

Holland Christian will travel to East Grand Rapids on Thursday at 7 p.m. to battle rival Holland, who defeated Allendale 7-2 on Monday night in the district semifinal.